Bone

Bone - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

BONE, n.

1. A firm hard substance of a dull white color, composing some part of the frame of an animal body. The bones of an animal support all the softer parts, as the flesh and vessels. They vary in texture in different bones, and in different parts of the same bone. The long bones are compact in their middle portion, with a central cavity occupied by a network of plates and fibers, and cellular or spongy at the extremities. The flat bones are compact externally, and cellular internally. The bones in a fetus are soft and cartilaginous, but they gradually harden with age. The ends of the long bones are larger than the middle, which renders the articulations more firm, and in the fetus are distinct portions, called epiphyses. Bones are supplied with blood vessels, and in the fetus, or in a diseased state, are very vascular. They are probably also furnished with nerves and absorbents, though less easily detected in a sound state. They are covered with a thin, strong membrane, called the periosteum, which, together with the bones, has very little sensibility in a sound state, but when inflamed, is extremely sensible. Their cells and cavities are occupied by a fatty substance, called the medulla or marrow. They consist of earthy matter, rather more than half, gelatin, one sixteenth, and cartilage, about one third of the whole. The earthy matter gives them their solidity, and consists of phosphate of lime, with a small portion of carbonate of lime and phosphate of magnesia.

2. A piece of bone, with fragments of meat adhering to it.

To be upon the bones, is to attack. [Little used, and vulgar.]

To make no bones, is to make no scruple; a metaphor taken from a dog who greedily swallows meat that has no bones.

Bones, a sort of bobbins, made of trotter bones, for weaving lace; also dice.

BONE, v.t. To take out bones from the flesh, as in cookery.

1. To put whale bone into stays.

bon (`etsem, `otsem; Aramaic gerem, by extension used for "bony frame," "body," "strength," Ps 35:10; "the whole man"; Lu 24:39, "flesh and bones" = the solid and tangible framework of the body; figuratively the substance, the idea of a thing, the thing, per se): Figurative: Very often we find the use of these words in metaphorical phrases, in which a disease or a discomfort of the body denotes certain emotions or mental attitudes. Thus the expression "rottenness of the bones" (Pr 12:4; 14:30) signifies the feelings of a man whose wife causes him shame and confusion, or is equivalent to "envy," "jealousy." The translation of the Septuagint in these passages by skolex, "worm," and ses, "maggot," "moth," is incorrect. The same phrase is used in Hab 3:16 for utter dejectedness through the anticipation of approaching evil. Similarly the "shaking of the bones" (Job 4:14) is expressive of fear, and denotes dejection and sadness in Jer 23:9. The "burning of the bones" is found as a symptom of J ob's disease (Job 30:30), and stands for grief, depression of spirits in Ps 102:3 and La 1:13, and also for the feeling of Jeremiah, when he attempted to hold back the Divine message (Jer 20:9), while "dryness of bones" (Pr 17:22) is the opposite of "good health." Other similar expressions of mental distress are the "piercing of the bones" (Job 30:17), the bones are "troubled" (Ps 6:2), "out of joint" (Ps 22:14), "consumed" (Ps 31:10 the King James Version), "wasted away" or "waxed old" (Ps 32:3), "broken" (Ps 51:8; La 3:4), "ill at rest" (Ps 38:3), "bone of my bones," etc. (Ge 2:23), having the same nature, and the nearest relation (2Sa 5:1) and affection (Eph 5:30). In the last-mentioned passage, the Revised Version (British and American) omits "of his flesh, and of his bones" as an interpolation from Ge 2:23. The figs. in Mic 3:2,3 are expressive of the most cruel oppression and murder.

H. L. E. Luering